Tolstoy and Tagore

Ave Maria! Four days ago I was able to stop by Mary's House in Springfield for a brief investigation of its condition, as my family was picking up a dog at a farm not too far away. There was good news and bad news for me there. The good news is that the overall condition of the house was virtually unchanged, despite the fact that nearly a year has passed since my last visit. I had expected to see deterioration due to weather and lack of repairs. What needed to be fixed a year ago, still needs to be fixed, but, as my daughter stated, the bones of the house are good. Everything is still fixable.

On the other hand, the bad news is that people have trespassed and rifled through everything looking for what is of value to them, presumably money or drugs. Finding neither, they trashed the house. Some items were packed to take, but were left untaken. I am blessed by the fact that what I value the most, books, artwork and religious statues and paintings, were left alone. One statue of Mary was either moved or taken, but others were untouched. Needlessly, religious literature and school supplies were dumped all over the floor. The front door was open, the door to the garage-turned-barn was kicked in, and someone, perhaps a well-meaning neighbor, had piled artwork against the unlocked front door such that, in order to enter, I had to push the pile away from the door and step across a mirror, which I thus broke.

My daughter looked up in the attic, as I had done a year earlier, and verified that the place where daylight was visible was not the roof, but the gable end of the east wall of the house. Several ceilings on the third floor are crumbling. I am sure that snow and rain enter through the hole, collect in the attic, freeze, then thaw, wreaking havoc with the plaster ceilings. A new roof is surely in order, but a repair to the gable wall will solve the immediate issue. And the foundation needs attention. I am looking into what that entails. But none of that intimidates me. Step by step it can all be accomplished.

In my last post I said that there are no homeless and hungry people at the door in Springfield at this time. Obviously, I was wrong. Perhaps they are not homeless. Perhaps they have food. But there are desperate folks breaking down the doors of Mary's House right now. I have always been in high gear about this project, but with patience, knowing that between my disabilities and the pandemic, there was not a lot I could do. Patience is giving way to resolve, persistence and perseverance. As you can read in my next post, I am casting a wide net, begging for volunteers. The time is now.

During the time since lockdown began last March, I have been praying, reading, and thinking about how to proceed in light of a changed reality. The Works of Mercy Challenge this summer helped to focus my thoughts on how to shelter the homeless during a pandemic. The rest of the solution came to me eventually as well. Miss Melissa, our Director of Faith Formation here in Portland, loaned me Nothing Is Impossible, Stories from the Life of a Catholic Worker by Scott Schaeffer-Duffy. Scott and his wife Claire helped found and remain at the Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker in Worcester, MA. Scott's book is full of interesting CW connections, people who have impacted the movement since its inception in 1933. As a result of this book, I have been scrambling to read up on Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910, Russian author of War and Peace, philosopher, promoter of vegetarianism, nonviolence and educational reform), Michael True (1933-2019, Worcester activist, educator, international speaker on nonviolence), and just today, because I read an article in celebration of Tolstoy's birthday, Tolstoy's educational philosophy along with that of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941, Bengali poet, literary giant, philosopher). All of these mentors: the Schaeffer-Duffy's, Tolstoy, True, Tagore, along with Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others, convince me that the time is now. The hour is late. Outdoor school is right, with or without a pandemic. Works of mercy offered freely is right in any season. Nonviolence is right, especially at this moment of polarization and despair. So now it's about doing it. My next post is a plea for volunteers. Please circulate it widely in whatever way you share information. I am writing it specifically as a succinct statement of the project and a call for help.

Peace.

God bless you and Mary keep you.